Way To Glow: Skin Secrets from Milan Fashion Week

Three new must-do-now ways to get instant luminosity, fresh from the AW18 catwalks

by Sophie Bloomfield

Fresh, luminous skin: it’s a perennial ‘want’, as much on the catwalk as it is in real life. And whilst many of the most directional looks we’ve seen for AW18 in Milan will be less easy to translate off the catwalk (take the fuchsia liner topped with crystals at Prada, for example), these tips from backstage are tricks we’ll all benefit from trying right now.

Emulating the enviable glow at Blumarine is effortless with MAC’s genius new highlighter formula. Launching in the UK this spring – or get yours now from MAC’s European sites – these ultra-fine powder trios give a completely believable ‘real skin but better’ luminosity. “Use a small fluffy brush like MAC’s 224 brush to really polish them into the cheekbones, down the bridge of the nose and across the eyes,” directs LynseyAlexander, the show’s lead make-up artist. For further gleam, Alexander applied a little of MAC’s Prep + Prime Essential Oils stick over the top. “It breaks it down, so the product truly disappears into the skin,” she adds. The result: rested, radiant skin without a hint of evident make-up.

2. Mattify your skin but gloss your lids

Matte skin is back for AW18. But not flat matte: elements of shine on the face – notably the lids and the lips – are the details making a natural face feel new for now. At Sportmax, make-up artist Karim Rahman was “accentuating the shine on the eye by mattifying the face,” he explained, pulling eye gloss across the lids almost out the temples to give a look he described as “fresh, natural but graphic.”

3. Flick on some freckles

That everyone from Kate Moss to Gisele often rely on a few fake freckles to cheat a healthy glow is nothing new. Indeed, the nomadic flush at Missoni wasn’t just about the blush (although make-up artist Lynsey Alexander was raving about MAC’s forthcoming Flirting with Danger Blush, which works on all skin tones to create a realistic sun-warmed effect), for a new freckling technique was in the mix, too. Alexander had artists mixing MAC Brown Chromacake with water, dipping in a disposable mascara wand, and gently flicking it a few inches away from the face to disperse a fine smattering of freckles. “It’s the randomness that makes it look real,” she explained. Add a few larger dots with the traditional brow pencil technique and pat in.